Chief executive of Barclays Americas and a former senior Lehman Brothers
manager, Hugh 'Skip' McGee, steps down ahead of a radical overhaul of US
operations

The most senior former Lehman Brothers manager left at Barclays has quit the bank where he ran its US business ahead of the introduction of onerous new rules that will force the lender to set up a new New York-based holding company for its American operations.

Hugh ‘Skip’ McGee, the chief executive of Barclays Americas, has resigned from the bank he joined in 2008 following the bankruptcy and subsequent takeover of Lehman Brothers where he had been the global head of its investment banking division in the years before its collapse.

In a statement, Barclays said Mr McGee, one of the best known bankers on Wall Street and who was largely credited with overseeing the integration of Lehman Brothers North American business with that of Barclays, had decided to step down ahead of the beginning of a two-year regulatory overhaul of the bank’s US arm.

His departure comes less than a week after Barclays suffered a protest vote at its annual shareholder meeting over an increase in bonuses at its investment banking that was mainly blamed on the need to pay out bigger bonuses to staff based in the US after several rivals attempted to hire large numbers of New York-based employees.

Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays, said Mr McGee had made a “significant contribution” to the bank as a member of its top executive committee and that he left the lender with its “good wishes”.

“He has been the longest-serving head of investment banking on Wall Street, and our most senior client-facing executive, responsible for driving some of the industry’s highest profile transactions,” said Mr Jenkins.

Mr Gee said: “After 21 years with Lehman Brothers and Barclays, I have made the difficult decision to leave. Banks is a ‘team sport’, and I am incredibly proud of the team we assembled here.”

Joe Gold, head of client capital management at Barclays, will take Mr McGee’s job and will be responsible for overseeing the establishment of the new US holding company the bank will be required to establish in order to continue operating a large-scale Wall Street banking operation.

He will be aided in this by Stephen Thieke, a non-executive director of Barclays and a former senior official at the New York Federal Reserve.

“Joe Gold is a proven leader and has a track record of strong execution, having led the strategic development of a number of key businesses while at Barclays. He understands the rapidly-changing regulatory landscape and will ensure that our American interests are well-positioned,” said Mr Jenkins.